II
M. S. Nagarajan
SRI BHAGAVAN HAD a unique method of expoundingprofound truths with illustrations taken from everyday life. His
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words were never premeditated but came spontaneously, they
were also apt, as the following incident will show.
It was in 1932, I think, when I was in charge of the daily
puja at the Mother's shrine, that a devotee known as P.W.D.
Ramaswami Iyer arranged for a special food offering of sarkarai
pongal (a kind of rice-pudding) and vadai (a small round cake of
blackgram fried in oil).They were to be offered at the time of the
ushah puja (puja conducted before day break in the month of
Margasira (December-January)). I had many things to do and
there was no one to help me. So I got up very early, at about half
past three, and after taking my bath in the Pali Tirtham, removed
the old flowers from the shrine, swept and cleaned the floor and
lit two fires, over one of which I placed the pot of rice for the
pongal and over the other the pan of oil for the vadai. I then sat
down to grind the black gram which I had soaked in water
previously. By the time the dough was ready, the oil was sufficiently
hot. I had not actually prepared vadais previously at any time.
But I took some dough and tried to spread it out on the leaf in
the form of a neat round vadai as I had seen others do, but it
would not come out properly. I tried again and again but it was
of no use. I then got annoyed and threw the dough in disgust
back into the vessel. The next moment I noticed some movement
behind me. When I turned round I saw, to my consternation,
Sri Bhagavan standing behind me and watching my efforts to
make vadai. I was naturally agitated but he said quietly, "It doesn't
matter. You have added too much water while grinding the black
gram. Now make round balls of the dough and fry them. They
will then be bondas!" I did accordingly.
When the bondas were served to the devotees at breakfast,
as usual, Ramaswami Iyer said to me angrily, "Look here. Did I
not ask you to prepare vadai? Then why have you made bondas?"
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I was afraid to say anything and so merely looked at Sri
Bhagavan who immediately turned to Ramaswami Iyer and said,
"What does it matter? If the cakes are flat and circular they are
vadais, if spherical, bondas. The stuff is the same and the taste is
the same. Only names and forms are different. Eat the prasadam
(food offered to a deity) and don't make a fuss." Everyone was
astonished at the ready and apt reply of Sri Bhagavan.
Ramaswami Iyer could not contain his joy! He exclaimed,
"Wonderful, Wonderful!" Later in the day, when he saw me, he
said, "I say, you are a lucky fellow. Sri Bhagavan himself is
supporting you."
The world consists of names and forms. These are naturally
many, but what lies behind them is one and the same. Names
and forms are not real although we think that they are. Brahman
which underlies them is real, but we forget it. What wisdom lay
in Sri Bhagavan's words!
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